1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to education, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for managing a student's postsecondary curriculum.
2. The Background Art
Throughout the world, America has long been admired for its postsecondary educational system. A postsecondary education most generally refers to programs and institutions with formal instructional programs and curricula designed primarily for students who have completed the requirements for a high school diploma or its equivalent. Although all postsecondary educational institutions may be grouped into a single class of institutions, in reality, these institutions may be quite varied in their offerings. For example, postsecondary educational institutions may range from technical schools conferring terminal occupational certificates or awards that are creditable toward a formal degree in less than two years, to four-year degree-granting institutions conferring recognized degrees that require four or more years to complete, to institutions granting graduate degrees that extend past the four-year mark typical of baccalaureate programs.
Despite past successes of the postsecondary education system in the United States, many institutions of higher learning, such as colleges and universities, are facing various crises. For example, the university system in California is currently facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit. Although much of the deficit may be attributed to overspending due to gross miscalculations of future revenues from investments during the “dot.com” boom of the late 1990s, and to the current downturn of the economy, much of the deficit may be attributed to a faulty or non-market-responsive model for providing education. Moreover, the bursting of the “dot.com” bubble has not only caused significant education budget deficits, but has also depleted college and retirement savings of parents who desire to pay for their children's education.
Much of the failure of the postsecondary educational system as a delivery vehicle for education may be attributed to the fact that the system has been designed as a business model targeting growth and full employment of its departments, rather than an educational model. Some have been so brash as to label the postsecondary educational system “Education Inc.”
Certain flaws in the postsecondary education system may exacerbate the problem. For example, a student approaching a college or university is many times referred to a counselor for advisement. These counselors are typically employees or faculty members of the college or university in question. This creates several conflicts of interest.
For example, an employee or faculty member may be biased to advise a prospective student to take classes or participate in courses of study in that persons department, college or university, despite the fact that a more suitable curriculum, in terms of content, focus, cost, location, availability, quality, and the like, may be found at another institution, college, or department. This may result in the student receiving a non-ideal curriculum. A degree that could have taken only four years to complete, may take six years. Classes that may have been taken closer to a student's home, are taken at a more distant institution and at a greater cost. Scenarios such as these may occur because a student has not been provided important information. In fact, there is currently very little comparative shopping occurring between services offered at different educational institutions, or even between colleges or departments within a single university.
Those in business realize the advantages to having multiple vendors or suppliers for a particular product. Maintaining multiple vendors helps to ensure that a product is regularly purchased at the lowest cost, highest quality, and the like. Thus, what are needed are apparatus and methods to create and apply a consumer-oriented model to the postsecondary educational systems extant.
Competition or equal availability between different educational institutions may enable a student to compare and shop for services offered by those educational institutions. Thus, a student may optimize selected preferences such as his or her class schedule, days of the week to take classes, tuition costs, location or timing of courses, and the like. In a sense, what are needed are apparatus and methods to compare features of courses and degree programs as one would compare products, to provide some standard characteristics comparable to those of other commodities.
Therefore, what are needed are apparatus and methods to enable a prospective student to shop for education products or services offered by various educational institutions.
Moreover, what are further needed are apparatus and methods to enable a student to mix and match courses and requirements offered by distinct educational institutions towards completion of a customized or personalized degree program desired.
What is further needed are apparatus and methods to standardize nomenclature used by various institutions for identifying selected types of information and “product” descriptions.
Further needed are apparatus and methods for classifying the information with nomenclature, such that it may be extracted for comparison, and ultimately, for selection and “product” design by individuals.
Also needed are apparatus and methods to enable a student to select preferences with respect to curriculum scheduling, cost, location, and the like. A curriculum for obtaining a degree may then be designed and optimized in accordance with a student's preferences, goals, limitations, or needs.